Etsy love and what to buy for dudes.

First off, if your name is Casey and you are my husband, please read no further! xoxo ;)

Second, Etsy is the place to shop for husbands. Men in general, really. I'm tellin' ya. Type in whatever your man is in to and you will have options galore. Etsy is not the girlie/crafty site you may be envisioning. For Casey's birthday last month, I bought him the most awesome mug ever. He makes a White Russian every Friday night and so I searched for beer mugs on Etsy and found this:

I got his name etched onto it and being the huge Harry Potter fan that he is, he LOVED it. The shop is called Geeky Glassed and he makes other designs too, more H.P. ones, Star Wars ones, Game of Thrones, you name it. And, the quality is unbeatable, it is very sturdy!

I always shop for Casey's Christmas gifts on Etsy too. We normally only do stocking stuffers for each other for Christmas so it's the perfect place to find cool small things. Like these cool composer magnets, for example, from the shop SugarPlumRobots.

She makes tons of buttons/magnets, but being a musician, Casey will think these are super cool. Last year I got him a few composer action figures that he didn't have (yes, they're a real thing). Except for Bach! Bach is darn expensive! I'll get my hands on him one day, though.

Next up, I looked for more Harry Potter stuff and found these cool Hogwarts letter seals.

They're peel and stick and I can see him using these on his letters to his buddy Curtis, a die-hard Harry Potter fan. This shop is called Retromancer.

The next two things will not fit in his stocking, but that's ok, cause they're sooooo cool.

I typed in Star Wars and could not believe that I found the original Star Wars soundtrack ON VINYL!! and for a normal price too (some people get ahold of collector's items and try to pretend they're worth $100). This one was $25. It's a two-record set, from 1977. He is going to absolutely flip out. I found it in the JustCoolRecords shop and I favorited his shop because he has some other really awesome hard-to-find-at-Goodwill records. AND, he made it really easy for me to pay little extra for Priority shipping to make sure it gets here by Christmas.

Lastly, I got him this amazing piece of art from the shop Harshness. It's by far the coolest Millennium Falcon artwork I've ever seen.

If you have a Star Wars lover in your family, you should absolutely check out this shop!!! Great stuff.

That's all for now! What do you all buy for your husbands? Are they are hard to shop for as mine is? I'm so thankful for Etsy, that's for sure. It has made Christmas shopping for Casey sooooo much easier these last couple years. I get so excited for him to open his presents! He never asks for anything and can never think of anything he wants so I'm pretty much on my own. And he's extremely picky about his clothes, even though he has the most simplistic wardrobe of any guy I know--except maybe his Dad, so I guess they are two peas, haha! His t-shirts have to have that "certain feel". LOL! Feel free to add your shopping-for-men ideas in the comments!

Another gift idea for you! Homemade lotion bars

I have made no less than 20 of these lotion bars over the past few weeks. I have one sitting on my kitchen counter and we all use it and absolutely love it! I really love how it feels and smells and how it protects my skin.

Here is the recipe I used.

I already had the coconut oil and I've been building my collection of essential oils. (The oils are optional, they smell great without them too!) I bought the heart molds at Michael's in the soap isle--the three pack was $2.99. The shea butter and beeswax pestules, I had to order on Amazon. You may be able to find them where you live, but I couldn't.  So, I think in total, these gifts were somewhere between $30 and $40 to make, if I count the little plates I got at Goodwill to store them on. But that's for 20 gifts!! That's a lot. And I have enough ingredients to make more. They are fast to make and very easy. The even dry quickly.

Like I said, I searched Goodwill for little plates/glass coasters to present them on.

 I thought it necessary to explain, haha.

For the scent, I've tried lavender/lemon and orange/almond. I like the orange and almond the best! I added about 20 drops of each essential oil per batch. A batch made four of the molds I used. Also, you'd be best not bothering to wash your utensils between batches--that beeswax does come off, but it takes some time, so I just set my measuring cup and wooden spoon aside and used it for the next batch the next day.

Clothespin Magnets

I have a super easy and inexpensive gift idea for you today! You may have seen these around, but in case you haven't and are struggling for simple gift ideas this year, I thought I'd help you out ;)

They really don't even require instructions, all you need is clothes pins, Mod Podge and a stick-on magnet roll. I got a big roll at Michael's for $2.99 and the Mod Podge is about $6. I used a coupon for both and so this project cost me about $6 total. I already had the clothes pins, but those are super cheap too, and if you don't have scrapbook paper around, you'll need some of that too--although fabric scraps will work fine also!

I made three sets of four today, but I plan on making quite a few more! 
I will say that card stock weight paper works better with Mod Podge than the thin papers--I learned this when making the Barbie house last year! Fabric also Mod Podges really well, but will be messier--I would probably glue a larger than necessary piece on and then trim or file down with a nail file, rather than cutting the fabric to size first.

 I put a layer of Mod Podge on the clothespin, stuck the paper on (I cut the paper to size beforehand), then after that dried, topped with two more coats of Mod Podge. Typical decoupage method :)
 The magnet roll comes twice the width you'll need. I just cut it lengthwise down the middle and then stuck it on. They work great! Not wimpy, which I was worried about. Don't you just hate it when a magnet can't even handle a single piece of paper without sliding down?? Me too ;)

I plan on clipping these to a few iTunes cards for a few gifts and giving some as stand alone gifts too, maybe attached to a small card with a Christmas sentiment. I'd love to see yours if you make some!

How is your Christmas prep coming along? I seem to have more time to work on little projects this year and I'm feeling relaxed and ready (definitely not the case in years past), but I hope that if you're feeling the Christmas stress, you will start asking yourself which things on your to-do list are just not necessary. I know it feels like there are soooo many people you need to do for, but ya know what? People are more understanding than we give them credit for. Especially the people who love us ;)

Let's catch up, shall we?

Sheesh, I haven't blogged much lately. I'd apologize, but I blog without obligation, so...

Thanksgiving was so late this year, right? It makes Christmas seem like it's coming faster. I feel as prepared as I always do (ha). I have most of my gifts bought and most of my sewing done. Our house is decorated and White Christmas has been watched. Christmas with the Kranks is up next. Love that movie so much!!

This last week was so busy, in the greatest kind of way.

Casey's birthday was last Sunday.

The kids decorated. Parties are their love language ;)

We have some close friends from Colorado who also live in Virginia, a few hours away and they came down for Thanksgiving. We have always spent Thanksgiving with Casey's family so I was really missing them! Having friends here really helped the homesickness a lot. I'm thankful to have some loved ones on this coast.

We also celebrated their oldest, Andrew's birthday while they were here! These boys can really get into the Legos.

 Look at these cuties! Aw. Andrew got the Legos and then Ethan and Kelby built them, it was kinda funny.

Then! While they were here, we went down the street and took some pictures at this pretty little spot here on Fort Lee. It was the coldest photo shoot I have ever done, but it was totally worth it. Here are a few of my favorites.

 I think these two shots are soooo beautiful. The light was workin' for me!

I think that pretty much catches us up! We decorated for Christmas yesterday, and I did take a few pics but those are on Instagram. I'm on Instagram as nikkischreiner if you're interested in following me there. If you're on Instagram, do you have the A Beautiful Mess app?? Cause it was awesome before, but they just updated it and now it is SUPER awesome!

Right now my laundry room is piled high with Amazon boxes. I ordered gifts early this year and they are ready to be wrapped! And the gifts from both sets of grandparents have also arrived and waiting to be wrapped. So, if you need me, I'll be in a flurry of cute wrapping paper and vintage ribbons someone passed along to me for added cuteness!

Cheers :)

A calm life

I read a quote on Pinterest recently that said, "It's okay to be happy with a calm life". It stood out to me. Why do we sometimes feel guilty when we are not busy? Or our kids aren't busy? Or we are not doing more than one thing at any given moment? Since moving here, my life has slowed down dramatically and I struggled with it at first until I really began praying for the spirit of guilt to just be lifted. Our enemy is the Accuser and these feelings of guilt and restlessness are not of the Lord. So I devoted myself to prayer about this and over the past few weeks, I have felt joy and freedom overtake the guilty feelings. Praise the Lord! I know He is using this season of my life to reveal and deal with a handful of things that I have struggled with for a long time and I am so thankful. 

My complete lack of a social life here has made Christmas the least stressful that it's ever been since we've had kids! I have time to sew, to plan, to order early and act on the little things that I always want to do, but never get to. (It's okay not to get to those things too, ya know. If you're feeling overwhelmed, start slashing nonessentials from that holiday to-do/to-buy list and don't give guilt over it any place in your Christmas celebration!)

A couple weeks ago, we headed up to Colonial Williamsburg! I had really wanted to go, but was horrified when I looked up the price. It's ridiculous, really. But, over Veteran's Day weekend, all military and their families could get in free!!! I was so happy. So we headed up there for the day and despite my back going out on the car ride up, I was determined to make the most of it. It was one of those family occasions that will be remembered so fondly--everyone was in a good mood, no one was whiny, the weather was good and it was just fun to be together. Even though I was walking slowly and sideways, haha. 

I am hoping to share another tutorial with you this week. I have made my ornaments for this year and thought I'd share the little pattern I made. If I can figure out how to get that pattern on here so that you can print it (it's probably totally easy, but I've never done it before), then that will be up soon!

Cheers :)